TheKipon EF Lens to Micro 4/3 mount smart adapteris a fairly big deal. Not just because it enables aperture adjustment for the electronically controlled EF line of lenses when adapted to a micro 4/3 camera body, but it has also bridged the proprietary technology to gain the use of full auto focus and lens based image stabilization capabilities. Having followed a fairly similar path into the micro 4/3 world as I would imagine many others, I came from a long standing investment in the Canon system. I still shoot my Canon full framers, and have compiled some very nice glass over the years that tends to sit on the shelf more often now that I shoot the micro 4/3 system. I’ve been waiting for a solution to merge my two beloved systems, and Kipon has produced it.

Firstly, thank you to Adorama for the loaner. Before purchasing this adapter, I wanted to make sure that it worked as advertised, and wasn’t just another semi-functional solution in the adapter game. As the only current distributor of the Kipon products in the US, Adorama is the go to for this particular adapter. They’ve been great to work with, and a solid retailer which I whole heartedly support. Thanks, guys.

Up until this adapter was released, those of us wanting to use our EF lenses on a micro 4/3 camera needed to either shoot them wide open, or use one of the adapters that had an unscientific and somewhat inaccurate aperture mechanism integrated into it. While there was the work around that I wrote about 5 and a half years ago HERE, using the DOF Preview method shown in the video directly below, we could “adjust” our lens’ aperture by doing so on an EOS camera, and removing it which keeps it stopped down:

Blast from the past! Man, was I stiff. Good to know the years have helped me relax into this whole camera review thing a bit. The catch with this method is that you need to keep a Canon camera body around if you ever want to adjust your aperture when using an EF mount lens adapted to a micro 4/3 body. Well, those days are finally over.

Let’s get right into it. Below, I’ve got a quick video showing the AF in real time. Shots throughout of varying subjects with all settings listed, finished off with my thoughts on where I feel this adapter succeeds and where it can be improved upon.

All shots throughout the article were taken with the Panasonic Lumix GX7 and Kipon Adapter.

In the video below, I use the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM lens fitted to the Kipon Adapter on the Lumix GX7, first in continuous AF, controlled via an AF point I was manually adjusting the location of by touch screen while recording, and single AF with a fixed point in the second test to show how this adapter is able to handle AF in low light. While this is showing the AF in video, because the micro 4/3 system uses a Live MOS sensor, video and still AF operate similarly in that they’re focusing on the sensor through a live feed, and results in video versus stills are similar enough to just show you how it does in live time via video recording, so have a look:

Simply put, the AF is quick, but not always accurate from my experience. To be fair, CDAF systems have always struggled a bit with continuous, tracking AF, and to be completely fair, ALL auto focusing systems, with the rare exception of high end pro cameras, struggle with tracking AF when a subject is moving toward or away from the camera, so the results in the video, to me, are impressive. The low light auto focusing speed and accuracy overall is also impressive to me as shown via the second setup in the video above, especially considering the AF speed comparatively via the other “smart” adapter I own which is the Metabones EF>Sony E mount, full frame AF adapter (see more on the Metabones for Sony adapter HERE). For comparison, have a look at that Metabones adapter using the EF 35mm f/1.4 L lens here:

The performance of the Kipon adapter creams the Metabones for speed but that brings me to firmware. Both adapters in the videos above are operating on early firmware. Updates have suggested that the AF performance for either have been improved upon, and unfortunately I cannot speak to that in the Kipon’s case as they only offer a Windows OS firmware update, which to me is a bit odd, and unfortunately useless as I don’t have easy access to a windows machine.

EF 35mm f/1.4L lens w/Kipon Adapter – ISO 400 – f/2 – 1/25sec

I have a small collection of Canon EF mount lenses, a few of which are currently incompatible with the AF function of the adapter. After communicating with Kipon, through Adorama, it is well documented in their Lens Compatibility List HEREwhich has an up to date, comprehensive list on which lenses are fully supported, and which are partially supported.

Before knowing about the list, I tried my Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L, EF 35mm f/1.4L, EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS, EF 1.4xII Tele-Extender, EF Macro 100mm f/2.8L IS and my EF mount Voigtländer Ultron 40mm f/2 manual focus lens. While I had the Kipon adapter, I also happened to be shooting with the EF 200-400mm f/4L IS lens (see my take on that monster HERE).

Of the lenses I own, only the 35L and 70-200L were fully compatible at the time of testing. All the others did just fine if I manually focused them, but AF did not work properly, or not anywhere near consistently with the other lenses showing severe front focusing when using AF most of the time. The Voigt, obviously being a manual focus lens was not able to be tested for AF, but did well otherwise regarding proper focus confirmation via peaking, EXIF data transmission, aperture control, et al.

Speaking of EXIF, while it is transmitted, I did find some oddities. Firstly, in most cases, the focal length of the lens, and aperture are listed twice. For instance, the 35mm f/1.4 lens would list as “EF to M43 35- 35mm F1.4- 1.4” which is a bit gratuitous, but at least I know which lens that is. The other oddity, was when shooting the 70-200mm zoom with a 1.4x extender effectively changing it to a 98-280mm f/4 lens, it would show the lens, more or less properly as “EF to M43 98-280mm F4 -4” but often listing the used focal length incorrectly and as a length not even available such as “24mm” or “16mm” which I’d assume just knocked off the “0” at the end. I did see this happen a few time without the extender too, but hopefully it has been, or will be fixed via the newer firmware I was unable to update to. Luckily, it did not affect the operation of the lens itself, and while it did in cases slow the AF operation down, the lens with the 1.4x extender did just fine, with certain cases exhibiting front or back focus when focusing at the extreme ends of the range at near the minimum focusing distance, or near infinity.

I was impressed with the low light AF capabilities, and with how well it incorporated the EF lens’ image stabilization. The above shot was handheld at 260mm (520mm E-FOV) at ISO 3200, 1/15 second at f/4 using the EF70-200mm f/2.8 IS lens with the 1.4x Extender. Not the sharpest nor most compelling shot, but I was looking to see how well I could judge the low light AF capability as well as the lens based IS effectiveness when translated through this adapter…I was impressed.

Also impressive were the results from high contrast/backlit situations which can often times stump these CDAF systems.

EF 35mm f/1.4L lens w/Kipon Adapter – ISO 200 – f/1.4 – 1/1600sec

Now, low contrast scenarios were also pretty well handled as seen above with green on green. This was in pretty good light, but I’ve seen native micro 4/3 lenses struggle to pick something this fine out from a congruous background, so kudos Kipon, kudos.

One area in which I saw a problem, was when shooting in very bright light with the sun in frame. This happened while trying to shoot the 35mm f/1.4 lens on a sunny day, early enough in the morning that the sun was fairly low in the sky, and positioned well in frame when shooting in most any direction other than with it at my back. The lens went crazy, opening and shutting the aperture iris rapidly in what I assumed to be an attempt at regulating the amount of light coming through it. It wouldn’t achieve focus, and wouldn’t allow me to fire the shutter, effectively rendering the camera useless. This was a very specific scenario one day, but a scenario that I felt needed to be mentioned. I have no idea if this has been addressed with the firmware update, again not being able to implement it due to operating system incompatibility (hopefully Kipon will add Mac OS support in the near future), but I’d hope it will be remedied. Worst case scenario, this combo wouldn’t be usable under those very specific conditions, and I didn’t see this problem with my other lenses under similar circumstances, probably down to the fact that the f/1.4 max aperture let quite a bit more light through than my other lenses.

Using these EF lenses for a portrait shoot, I wanted to see how well they handled on the GX7 with adapter. I am very familiar with the 70-200 on my full frame cameras, so it was a good test for me to see if they operated similarly. Head shots are a common task, and I traditionally have a few lights set up where I need the camera to AF in ambient light levels hovering around EV4 or so. Not horrible, but certainly not a ton of light. Using the EF70-200mm, one of my go to’s for studio head shots and general portraiture, it did not miss a beat, and handled the setup wonderfully.

When you shoot for the stars, don’t be entirely frustrated if all you can hit is the moon.

In conclusion, this adapter is a pretty amazing accomplishment by Kipon, for system users in my opinion. Micro 4/3 system shooters who would like to electronically control the aperture on their EF or EF-S lenses while also gaining AF and IS support for a good selection of them, have a very compelling option. Hey, for video shooters who wouldn’t be using AF, the ability to electronically control aperture on their EF mount lenses alone is massive. The AF was mostly accurate on compatible lenses, and while not always perfect the EXIF data transmission was enough to know what and where I was shooting with a particular lens.

That said, this adapter isn’t perfect, and while there is hopefully going to be support added to more lenses as popularity and demand grow through firmware updates, the fact that there has been a firmware update since I sent this review unit back is a good sign. Hopefully both Windows and Mac users will be jointly supported soon. Also, keep in mind that you’ll have to track down a micro USB cable as they don’t come with the adapter, and if you don’t have a phone or device that uses one, you may need to search one out. There are different USB adapters out there as I have a couple different “micro” USB adapters used on my card readers and the like that have a different “micro” plug as well.

The compatibility is what it is. View the Adapter/Lens Compatibility List HERE to see if your lenses are supported, or to which extent they may be currently. Since sending the adapter back, they’ve added support via firmware for lenses like the 100mm f/2.8 Macro lens I have and was seeing problems with the AF operation, but seems as if they’ve added support for that one, which is awesome. Good to see a proactive system of support! All in all, while not without fault, it is a very cool addition to an ever growing system, further allowing access to more high end lenses usable for both stills and video for shooters who like me, may have been existing on both sides of the micro 4/3 and Canon EF system fence. It provides a fairly seamless bridge between the two, and while perhaps flawed, is the best option going for those of us wanting to shoot EF lenses on a micro 4/3 camera that I’ve seen, bar none.

Thank you to both Alana and Shua at Adorama for the loaner, the support and the enjoyable banter as I worked my way through some of my questions and issues. Great folks to work with, and a great company to buy through. If you do choose to buy the Kipon adapter, Adorama is the only game in town to get this in the states, so visit them and see the Kipon EF to micro 4/3 AF smart adapter HERE. Buying through this link costs no more than it would otherwise, but would let Adorama know that you found it through my article, and would give me a small commission, so if you do choose to do so through my link, please know that you’re putting food in my kids mouths, shoes on my wife’s feet and camera gear in my hands with which I can continue to review here on the blog. Okay, maybe not nearly all that, but know that it adds up, and for that I am very grateful. Hopefully soon, I’ll be reinvesting some of that by buying this adapter for myself.

Thanks as always for the read. If you have any questions, I’d love to try and help answer them here or via the socials; Facebook, Twitter, FlickrandInstagram. If you would like to receive email notifications as I post new reviews, alerts on cool sales or general articles, please feel free to add your email address at the top right of the page here. You’ll get email alerts as new articles are released.

Tyson – Thanks for the review. It looks like perhaps this adapter has a ways to go before it is mature. I to fall in the category of a non windows user. Updates become a little bit of a problem.

From the tiny bit available elsewhere I get the feeling it has problems with other micro 4/3 bodies/systems. Also, Now that the GX7 has gone post production it leaves me reluctant to spend my money on this adapter. I’m not convinced the GX8 is in my future or even the GH5 when it comes around. And to make decision making even harder Panasonic has announced the Leica 100-400mm as a future release.

On the plus side it still seems like using the Canon L series lenses could be a benefit in that one is using mostly the center of the frame and should be able to get exception results with care.

I’m pretty darn impressed with this adapter, especially compared to the only other “smart” adapter I’ve used in the Metabones EF>Sony E mount mkIV adapter which has been painful, and after the most recent fw update, stopped working entirely (still an ongoing conversation with Metabones). All in all, I’ve seen their desire to improve usability through increased lens compatibility to be a wonderful thing. Hopefully they get the memo, and support MacOS which omitting that is just bizarre. Hopes that they’ll start to address that though too.

I’m currently working through my GX7 vs GX8 comparison, and I’ve found that the GX7 still does a lot, really well, even better in cases vs the GX8, so I think it is still a very relevant camera. Hell, the GX7 a year and a half newer than the OMD EM5 (and a better overall camera in my opinion) and Oly is still trying to push that camera on folks.

> GX7 has gone post-production …
… means that it’s gone CHEAP on the 2nd-hand market ! (And, like the E-M5, is no worse for newer cameras having been pumped out, as though you’ve signed up for some gear subscription. :o)

This development is so interesting, as so many rely on auto focus. With micro Four-Thirds lenses, I tend to rely on AF but with my Four-Thirds lenses, I usually focus manually on the GH4 and even the E-M1. The size of the lenses have a lot to do with this.

I have yet to see anyone working on Nikon-compatible AF and given that I have a Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8, that would be good in the future, but not completely necessary except in video.

Hey Tyson, thanks for the awesome write up, it was a great read! I know a lot of video and photo guys with canon glass, so knowing I could borrow some of it and use this adapter is good to know. I have a suggestion for a post for you (if you’re up for it, of course!) metabones over the summer released an XL version of the EF speedbooster 0.64, and shortly thereafter released a firmware update that gave the adapter AF….in essence turning an M43 camera into an APS-H camera in stills mode, and Super 35 in video mode. If adorama has it in stock, you should DEFINITELY ask then to send you one to review!

I recently purchased one of these to use with my OMD EM1, and I have to say that it’s a mixed bag of very good, or very bad.

It works fabulously with my 8-15mm L fisheye.

Mixed blessings with the Canon L IS 100-400mkII. The viewfinder goes black between 275mm to 350mm, but comes back at either side of those focal lengths.

Canon 70-200 L IS f/2.8 mkII, No joy at all.

So, I purchased a Canon L 70-300mm because it’s one of the lenses listed as compatible and retains Autofocus. Well, it doesn’t. No auto focus with it whatsoever. I have tried every setting, button, switch. Nothing.

It definitely is a mixed bag, but one that through FW updates, I have found they’ve been proactively adding support for lenses since I did this review. I sent my review unit back, and have just recently purchased a new one (months and months between this time) and after updating to the current FW, on my GX8, I’m seeing a marked improvement. It does seem that the Kipon adapter struggles more with Oly bodies than it does with Pana bodies though. Not sure why that is.

Here’s to hoping they’ll continue to provide updates and support for more body/lens combos.

I did perform firmware update last night, as the one I had one was v2.04 and the latest was 2.06. Seems to have, not fixed, but improved function with the L MkII 70-200 f/2.8, 100-400 f/4 and 70-300 f/4.

As for it struggling more with Oly more than with Pana, I’ve heard that from others.

Hello. Thank you for the good article. It was useful. However, I have a question about the compatibility of lenses.
The list contains CANON EF 70-200mm F2.8L IS II USM. You always write about the EF 70-200mm f / 2.8L and do not tell whether the first or second version of the lens was used.
I have a CANON EF 70-200mm F2.8L IS USM lens of the first version and an Olympus OMD EM-1 camera.
Will autofocus work when using this adapter?

I too have the first version of the 70-200 and it works well with the Kipon adapter for the cameras I shoot it on (currently all panasonics). I cannot guarantee that the OMD EM1 communicates well with the adapter as I’ve never used the combo, but I can say that the 70-200 via the Kipon adapter works well for me.